Joel Matip is one of Liverpool’s most interesting figures.
From his cartoonish face to his dry sense of humor, his personality has earned him cult hero statue.
But apart from the ex-Cameroon international’s incredibly attractive personality, there is one central defender who has played a key role in Liverpool’s success in recent years, notably Madrid’s Champions League triumph in 2019/20.
How good the Bochum defender has been at Anfield is often overlooked, with the focus on his partner Virgil van Dijk.
Matip was a phenomenal individual defender, dominant in the air (70% of his aerial duels during his Liverpool career) and a progressive monster with the ball at his feet (something he doesn’t like). reached the final) third?) and scored a few goals.
Still, there’s no denying that things didn’t go well.The victims suffered injuries. Matip missed over 100 games for the Reds in eight seasons at the club. Last season was disappointing for all involved as Liverpool came on late after a poor start and could only finish in the Europa League places.
It was disappointing for Matip, who managed less than half the game time compared to the previous campaign (2021/22).
Now that his place in the team (or at least the strongest starting XI) is gone, his replacement, Ibrahima Konate, has the body to keep him on the field. This gave Matip many opportunities. The big question was how he would adapt to the changed duties at Liverpool’s right centre-back.
Klopp turned things around in the final third of last season. Trent Alexander-Arnold began to thrive in possession and became a fixture on and off the pitch. This required the right back to move wider to cover more ground and defend a larger area.
He wasn’t cast in that role for most of last season. He only appeared twice in the final – against Arsenal, against West Ham and lastly against Southampton.
That question mark persisted in the pre-season, when Matip played a lot of minutes but wasn’t right for the role.He called for cover on the right, as mentioned above, and was isolated one-on-one with the attackers.
Matip is a very good one-on-one defender, but he tends to tackle in central areas, has never looked comfortable on the wing and now looks like he doesn’t have the legs to cover a ton of volume. space-bar.
In fact, three months ago I wrote an article concluding that if Klopp wanted to prolong Matip’s career at Anfield, he would be better off using him as Van Dijk’s back-up rather than his usual role. So let’s take a look at this season so far.
Matip appeared in 12 of Liverpool’s 18 games, playing a total of 902 minutes (for context, he played a total of 1,605 minutes last season). It wasn’t a good thing for Matip as he was one of the starting centre-backs in both of Liverpool’s defeats this season, including the heartbreaking own goal against Tottenham.
But judging anyone in this game seems harsh due to the low number of sides. Against Toulouse, Matip helped to confuse and relax France.But that lackluster performance went a long way and Matip was far from the worst of last Thursday’s group.
Let’s take a look at the positive impact Liverpool’s number 32 has had.His best performance of the season came in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Brentford. It still has everything to offer.
The biggest positive was his (and Van Dijk’s) aggressive defensive approach. Brentford’s attacking unit of Brian Mbeumo and Yoan Wissa were very quick, but Liverpool’s attitude hampered their play (barring an Alisson save from a counter-attacking corner).
Instead of dropping back five yards, Liverpool’s defenders attacked Mbeumo and Wisa as soon as they received the ball, often in Brentford’s own half. This approach even led to Mohamed Salah scoring a goal.
Kristian Norgaard throws the ball into the path of Bisa, who is still some distance from his own halfway line. In the blink of an eye, before the Congolese international could control the ball, he was met by Matip, who swept the ball into the path of Dominik Szoboszlai, who in turn quickly took the ball off Alexandre-Arnold’s feet. Then, thanks to Darwin Nunez’s brilliant play, Salah scored in the blink of an eye. Liverpool turned the defensive situation into a goal situation thanks to Matip’s active play.
This was a common theme throughout the game. This helped Liverpool win possession and opportunities and suffocate Brentford when in possession. It even led to another annoying (but memorable) moment.
We know what he’s good at. He is a top ball carrier on the court and a very good passer. Overall, his numbers this season are the lowest of his Liverpool career. He carries the ball more (55-of-90), but makes less progressive carries and moves into the final third.
He passes the ball as often as he did in his Anfield career, but makes less progressive passes and moves into the final third.
Looking at the raw numbers, you might think that Matip isn’t as good in possession as he used to be, but that’s not true.
